Blue Dawn (19 page)

Her mouth opened under his and he took the sweetness she offered only to him, took what he had wanted far more than he dared admit. Zalia, destiny, it could all wait. This moment was his, and Allie’s.

His hands rose from her hips, exploring and caressing the curves and softness beneath the thin cotton tank top she wore. Her tiny gasp of response and the arch of her body towards him sent passion exploding through him like a fireball.

No longer caring about detachment, about Zalian principles, he slid her top upwards, following its ascent with his lips, drinking in the intoxicating taste of which he couldn’t seem to get enough. Unerringly he found the front fastening of her white lacy bra and released it, exposing the full rosy firmness of her small breasts, the nipples awaiting the attention of his fingers and lips.

For a moment he just looked, unable to believe her beauty, the perfection of body he’d left untouched so long. His eyes never leaving her, he stepped back and quickly removed his shirt. He stopped when his hands reached his belt buckle.

Allie’s beautiful lips curved upwards in a teasing smile. Mimicking his actions, she undid the snap on her jeans, and slid them off, leaving herself clad only in a tiny swath of white lace.

She took one step towards him. She placed her hands on his, and moved them aside. She undid the clasp of the belt, the metal button at the top of his jeans and then, with a flourish, pulled down the zipper.

For a moment she caressed the hard flesh within, then her hands rose up his furred chest, setting off tiny brush fires wherever they stopped.

Roughly Erik grasped her bottom, pressing her softness against his hardness, moaning with the touch of her peaked breasts against his skin.

His mouth closed over hers once more, tasting, and exploring and loving. With his hands, with his body, with his heart and soul, he tried to communicate the depth of inexpressible feeling he felt for her. If it was wrong, he didn’t care. If he would pay for it later, he didn’t care.

The last of their clothes fell to the floor as Erik’s mouth joined hers with a passion he could feel in every part of him. His need fueled hers and she responded with increasing passion.

Allie’s knees almost gave out as naked body pressed against naked body. The touch of his skin against hers, the grazing of her breasts against the springy hair of his chest took her breath away, melting her bones and making her desperate for even more intimate contact.

Her swollen lips seemed to vibrate with the hum buzzing crazily and ever louder through her body. Her lips parted hungrily under Erik’s, opening herself to his love, like a flower to the rain.

Her heart and soul cried for his touch, for his kisses, to be as close to him as humanly possible.

Her hands held his head, tangled in his hair, every touch sending her closer to the eye of the storm. Her breasts tingled with excitement, an excitement that was pooling steadily and unremittingly in her core.

Beneath half-closed eyelids, she saw a faint blue light, like a mist, enveloping them in a strangely erotic glow. The light strengthened with each beat of their hearts, with each ragged breath, growing steadily with their passion and love until the whole room seemed bathed with it.

Through their kisses, through the fevered touch of their bodies, Allie could feel Erik’s love burning its way to her heart, branding her as his.

The electrical buzz speeded up crazily as he caressed her breasts, then slowly dragged his hands along the sensitized skin of her rib cage to her waist.

His hand slid between her legs. She gasped. He began stroking her, and exquisite pleasure rippled outwards in ever widening circles. He gripped her hair and his mouth claimed hers over and over.

Then his fingers slipped inside her, coaxing forth the liquid gold, driving her closer to the fiercest part of the storm. Unable to stay still, she responded wildly, simultaneously racing headlong towards what she wanted most and struggling to avoid it.

The hum vibrating through her body rose and rose and rose, and along with it the intensity of the blue light. Allie squirmed under the exquisite torture, sweet, unbearable anticipation thrumming through her body.

Finally Erik cupped her buttocks and pressed her against the exposed brick wall. Her legs straddled his waist and she opened herself completely to him and everything he offered.

He thrust inside her; for a heartbeat she thought she’d died of pleasure. She murmured and arched against him, her fingers tangling in his hair. “Erik. Don’t stop. Not now,” she managed between ragged breaths.

Slowly he began to thrust in and out, each movement pushing the tension past all bearable levels, and warning of the conflagration to come.

Allie rose to meet him, her pulsating, humming body encasing him, drawing him out, spiraling them both closer to the release they sought.

The storm within her grew darker, the heaviness in the air thick and unbreathable, every nerve and sensitive ending stretched to the breaking point. In her head thunder rumbled ominously.

Lightning struck with all the pent up power, violence, and frightening beauty of a summer storm. Release shot through Allie like a flash of ball lightning, scorching everything in its path.

Teetering on the edge of unconsciousness, she screamed.

For one terrifying moment, Erik’s heart stopped. He clapped a hand over Allie’s mouth, cutting off the blood-curdling shriek midstream.

Gasping for breath, he surveyed her with alarm.

Had he hurt her? Was there some kind of painful sexual incompatibility between Earthlings and Zalians, even one who was part Earthling?

Something no one had told him?

Tentatively he released his hand from her mouth. The frantic pounding of his heart echoing in his ears, he searched her face and her naked, beautiful body. Her eyes were shut, her breathing ragged, but she was still alive. Her lovely, rounded breasts and her flat stomach, above the enticing golden curls around her most intimate parts, were flushed, and she trembled slightly. But her arms still clasped his neck, her supple legs still rode his hips. And was that a faint smile that curved her kiss-swollen lips?

Unable to contain his concern, he wriggled experimentally inside her, his erection still surprisingly strong despite the terrifying scream. A few seconds later Allie’s eyelashes fluttered open, then immediately closed. What he’d hoped was a smile on her lips curved further upwards.

Sighing, she arched her back and let her head loll back against the brick wall, her lashes thick against her flushed cheeks. “Oh Erik, I think you’ve killed me,” she crooned.

“What?” Erik’s involuntary jerk and the sharp release of his hand would have sent Allie tumbling to the floor if her legs hadn’t still straddled his hips.

Allie’s eyes shot open. She straightened and tightened her hold around his neck, before looking at him with alarm. Then, her expression changed, and she giggled.

“Just a manner of speaking,” she managed between sputters. Her eyes took on a dreamy cast.

“All I meant was you were wonderful. Sex was wonderful. Making love was wonderful,” she drawled. She leant forward to kiss his nose.

“But you screamed!” He avoided her kiss and regarded her accusingly.

“That’s right.” She grinned. “Pretty neat, huh?

I’ve never done that before. Ever. I couldn’t help it. It was wonderful.” She shut her eyes and leant back against the wall, murmuring contentedly.

“Just wonderful.”

“You scream when things are wonderful?”

Allie opened one eye. Her lips twitched with amusement. “Not usually. But like I said, this was just so . . . so . . . so wonderful. I don’t know what you’ve got, Erik, or what you did, but I’ve never felt like this before. What more can I say?”

Despite his lingering disbelief, Erik’s male pride started to revive.
She thought he was
wonderful?
He resisted the unseemly urge to throw back his head and roar.

Instead, he narrowed his eyes. “You’re sure?”

he asked. “Because if I hurt you . . .”

Her eyes fluttered open again. “Hurt me? I don’t think so,” she said dreamily. “But if you’re really worried . . .”

She moved against him with a seductiveness that restoked the embers and sent passion flaring within him once more. “ . . . I’m sure we can do it all over again and see what went so . . . so right.”

She grinned mischievously as she slowly and rhythmically undulated her pelvis around him. She drew his head down towards her waiting lips.

“Maybe this time
you’ll
do the screaming.”

No more screams echoed through Allie’s apartment that night. Just the myriad sounds, and sensations, and emotions of love. Defenses dropped, differences forgotten, in the exploration of each other and the give and take of love.

Now, in the still dark hours of the early morning, Allie propped her head on one hand and regarded Erik.

He lay on his side, facing her, his eyes closed.

In the flickering light of the vanilla-scented candle on her night table, his hair appeared dark and damp, curling around his angular face. The candle light glistened off the broad planes of his cheeks, and his full lips. His muscular chest, covered with a thick mat of dark hair, rose and fell with his quiet breathing.

Allie smiled. For some reason, he made her think of an angel—Michael the Archangel after battle, to be specific—and about as far removed from the devil-may-care type of man she’d originally thought he was. The just as unlikely angel image made her smile grow wider still, and increased her urge to touch him, to draw him to her, to feel the weight and texture of his body over hers once more. She reached out and stroked Erik, slowly brushing the tips of her fingers along his hip and up towards his chest.

Immediately his dark lashes flickered upward.

Disconcertingly awake eyes regarded her with a passion that set her skin tingling.

How could she ever have thought those eyes were cold and metallic? she wondered. Or that the generous lips that had pleasured her in a thousand ways were grim and uncompromising?

When now, his slightest glance, the merest twitch of the corner of his mouth, melted her insides in an instant.

Suddenly Erik’s lips curved upwards in a knowing smile that made Allie’s heart expand even more. She cherished his smiles all the more for their rarity—and this one because she knew she was the cause of it.

A spark of humor lit his eyes. “Why are you looking at me like that?”

“Like what?” Allie lowered her eyelashes; a flush rose up her neck. Was it too soon to admit the deep feeling for Erik she’d acknowledged only to herself in the few hours since he’d saved her life? She’d always been impulsive; it was one of her biggest faults. But she was certain, this time, she was right.

“As if I’m dinner and you haven’t eaten in a long, long time,” he drawled.

Allie’s flush deepened. She’d never been any good at hiding her feelings. Why was now likely to be different?

To cover her confusion, she picked up one of his hands. It was warm and solid. She liked Erik’s hands. They felt so good holding her, caressing her, loving her. She stroked his hand, then raised it to her lips and kissed his palm.

The hum in her head flared to a crescendo, and her heart overflowed with warmth. She wanted to tell him so badly how much he meant to her. That she loved him for his humor as well as his lack of humor, for his obvious efforts to understand, for his endearing awkwardness, for the fact that he cared about her and wasn’t afraid to act on it. She wanted to tell him that, for the first time in a man’s arms, she felt cherished, treasured, and secure. And ravished beyond belief. But did she dare?

Instead she wriggled closer. She tilted her head and brushed her lips against his.

The heat of his answering kiss told her everything she wanted to know. His hand slipped from her grasp and behind her neck as he deepened the kiss.

“Mmm.” Allie melted into the kiss. Her lips, soft and wet, whispered across his cheek. “I love you Erik. I love you so much.”

It took a moment before Allie sensed that something had changed. Beside her, Erik grew still. His hand slid down her arm to the bed.

She looked at his face. His expression was blank. For a fearsome moment, Allied wondered if she’d gone too far, too soon.

Then, like a flower unfolding in the morning light, the corners of Erik’s mouth started to turn upwards. The smile grew, and broadened until it lit his broad, angular face. Like the first blue light of dawn after a cold, dark night, the smile spread to his eyes, chasing away the shadows and leaving nothing but sun-dappled warmth.

Allie’s heart soared. She loved him. And he loved her. Though his lips weren’t moving, she could hear his voice in her head, whispering gently but firmly, “I love you.” He might not say it out loud, but she could see it in his face, in the happiness she’d never seen there before, and in everything he’d done for her. He loved her.

She pressed her hand against his, fingertip to fingertip. A sudden burning sensation made her yank her hand away. She looked at her hand, then Erik’s.

“Erik! Your hand . . . the palm is glowing, sort of a blue light, just like—”

With lightning speed, Erik rolled over her, pinning her to the bed with his weight. He cut off her words with a hard, insistent kiss that sent shock waves burning through her body and shorting out her thoughts.

Without another thought, she surrendered to the searing embrace. Her arms circled his neck to pull him closer.

Dust motes danced in the morning sunlight streaming through the bank of windows into Allie’s apartment. On the couch where Sharkey had spent the night curled in a ball, he arched his back and yawned lazily.

Allie stood on tiptoe to circle Erik’s neck with her arms. She looked up a him, her emerald gaze full of appeal. “You could stay, you know,” she said. “You’ve got the day off, and I’m sure Nate would understand if I phoned and said I wanted to stay home.”

Her eyes gleamed. “Especially after my brush with death yesterday.”

Erik wavered. Allie was irrepressible. It was one of the amazing things about her he treasured.